This isn’t only a basketball recreation, it’s a reckoning. Choosing sides goes effectively past college allegiance.
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10:10 p.m. March 30, 2024A earlier model of this commentary didn’t meet Occasions editorial requirements. It has been up to date.
Do you favor the workforce that desires to develop ladies’s basketball or the one seemingly hellbent on dividing it?
The coach who embraces reporters or the one who assaults them?
When UCLA performs defending nationwide champion Louisiana State on Saturday at MVP Area within the Candy 16 of the Albany 2 Regional, the contrasts don’t cease with blue and purple.
Some would possibly see this as inclusive versus divisive.
There’s little debate as to which aspect of the ledger Tigers coach Kim Mulkey falls on. Lengthy after she reportedly didn’t help Brittney Griner, in essence telling her homosexual star to maintain her sexual orientation to herself, Mulkey has stumbled once more within the wake of an imminent Washington Put up profile on the veteran coach.
Final week, Mulkey threatened to sue the newspaper with out understanding the contents of the story, labeling it a “hit piece.” With out naming the reporter, she described the Put up’s Kent Babb as “sleazy.” She slammed the paper for giving her a deadline to answer questions whereas additionally disclosing that she had refused requests going again two years to take a seat for an interview.
In doing so, Mulkey turned a non-story right into a blockbuster. What number of extra readers will that Put up story get on account of her grandstanding?
Simply as befuddling, Mulkey sidestepped the difficulty Friday, refusing to deal with the story she created. The primary two questions Mulkey fielded at her media session concerned the Put up story. The coach dropped the ball every time.
Reporter: “What’s it been like form of ready for that story to return out?”
Mulkey: “I did make a press release, and that’s all I’ll touch upon presently as a result of all I’m targeted on is to try to win one other basketball recreation. Thanks for asking, although.”
Reporter: “To not belabor the purpose, however from what you may have been instructed or what you may have been requested … ”
Mulkey: “I’m solely right here right this moment to speak concerning the subsequent recreation.”
How handy for somebody who couldn’t cease speaking concerning the story lower than per week in the past. She’s solely mum when it fits her.
Mulkey’s greatest participant can also’t get out of her personal manner. A 12 months after she taunted Caitlin Clark by giving the Iowa celebrity the ring finger and mocking Clark’s hand-waving gesture late within the nationwide championship recreation, Angel Reese is at it once more. When Center Tennessee’s Anastasiia Boldyreva fouled out of a second-round loss to LSU, Reese waved goodbye as a crying Boldyreva headed to the bench.
The wave led to important blowback on social media, sparking a digital shrug from Reese.
“clickbait all the pieces i do preserve going viral,” Reese posted to the social media platform X, previously Twitter, after the sport.
Then there’s UCLA, which operates within the saintly shadows whereas being as healthful as a miniature stuffed Bruin mascot. UCLA coach Cori Shut provides reporters unfettered entry to gamers and practices, repeatedly thanking them for trumpeting the emergence of the ladies’s recreation.
She’s unfailingly cheery, loudly asserting her presence early Friday morning after the workforce’s flight was delayed by 2½ hours and arrived near midnight.
“Coach is right here!” Shut stated joyfully in a hall exterior the interview space.
Her gamers mirror her sunny disposition whereas being as controversial as a pledge drive for underprivileged kids.
“She’s slightly bit cornier than us,” senior guard Charisma Osborne stated, “however yeah, I feel she actually units the usual.”
So, perhaps they are surely America’s sweethearts?
“Certain, I form of like that,” star ahead Lauren Betts stated.
Mentioned Osborne: “I prefer it too!”
Added Betts: “However don’t get it twisted — we’re not sweethearts on the court docket. It doesn’t imply we’re smooth.”
Additionally they received’t give in to straightforward narratives. Betts and Osborne disputed the notion that Reese lacked class, and they need to know — they performed together with her for Crew USA final summer time.
“She’s an incredible teammate and I actually loved enjoying together with her,” Betts stated. “I feel she’s an incredible particular person and clearly relating to basketball you’re making an attempt to win, so it’s like, no matter it’s important to do to win, I don’t suppose that folks ought to decide her for that.”
Mentioned Osborne: “She’s very nice off the court docket as effectively and other people don’t all the time see that.”
Everybody can see for themselves Saturday. How will the nation’s most polarizing workforce conduct itself versus the one recognized for its class? The reckoning is right here.